Author Archive

Emily Watson in Trixie; The Astonishing Humanite

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Humanite directed by Bruno Dumont When Trixie opens on June 30, everyone will have the chance to see Emily Watson’s amazing title performance. An introverted security guard who stumbles upon some great American secrets, Watson’s Trixie tests casual notions of what it means to be a social person. She’s an individual among a community of
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

The Hughes Brothers’ Repellent American Pimp

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

American Pimp directed by Allen and Albert Hughes That swing of tenses from trouble to pleasure, dejection to erection, is part of "Trouble Man"’s excellence. Heard today, Gaye seems to have expressed a life encompassing both difficulty and satisfaction. In the song’s sleek, percussive recording, he balanced determination against woe: "There’s only three things that’s
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

Finally, a Good Youth Film: David Williams’ Gracious, Revelatory Thirteen

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Williams knows something of what great American artists from McCullers to Tennessee Williams and James Baldwin understood about American family life: that it can be both comforting and mystifying. Thirteen (showing for one week at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater) doesn’t idealize adolescence like the movies and tv shows that are
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

In Mission: Impossible 2, Cruise and Woo Gag on Their Own Corruption

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Mission: Impossible 2 Directed by John Woo Here’s the pattern: Impossible Missions agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) recruits jewel thief Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) to help steal a deadly virus before Nyah’s former lover Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) can use it to extort a pharmaceutical company and, ultimately, the entire world’s health. Double-crosses, killings, fancy
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

For Better and Worse, Two Films Highlight the Cinematographer’s Craft

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Dream of Light directed by Victor Erice The Last September directed by Deborah Warner Here’s Erice’s fascinating definition: "Throughout the twentieth century, painters and filmmakers have constantly observed each other, perhaps because they have had, and continue to have, more than one dream in common–among them the perfect capturing of light–but above all, because their
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

Love and Basketball Bids to Become a Grassroots Hit

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

It would be demeaning to call Love and Basketball a feminist movie. First, because its love story (girl weighs sacrificing career for housewifery) gets undeniably soppy; but most of all because the history of feminists embracing films about black women has been…nil. Will white feminists accept this black ball jockey’s tale as worthy of their
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

Keeping the Faith and Return to Me: Weak Films, Nice Tries

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Return to Me directed by Bonnie Hunt Keeping the Faith directed by Edward Norton But sometimes great actors have bad notions. Paul Newman’s longstanding interest in caper movies turns Where the Money Is into a metaphor for actors’ rebirth through daring and performance. Once again Newman takes the part of an aged sharpie inspired to
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

The Inspired Ready to Rumble; The Important Black and White

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Black and White directed by James Toback Before Black and White turns into a Brett Ratner-style music video during its end credits, director-writer James Toback exposes a world of betrayal, cultural pretense and moral chaos. You’ll never be able to watch Yo! MTV Raps the same way again. Toback follows a group of white east-side
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

Q&A with James Toback; Cusack in High Fidelity; The Sex Pistols in The Filth and the Fury

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

With Black and White (his seventh film) Toback has–at last–made an essential movie. Not that Fingers, Love and Money, Exposed and Two Girls and a Guy weren’t brave, outrageous and interesting, but Black and White achieves splendor. With its almost surreal penetration of the lust and fear behind our racial divide, it bids to be
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

Claire Denis’ Beau Travail; Looking Back at Indie Film; An Iranian Movie Tugs the Heartstrings

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Beau Travail directed by Claire Denis Do you ever wonder about the roots of oppression? Claire Denis has and dramatizes it in Beau Travail, her adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. But it isn’t the angelic sailor Billy Budd who gets her attention; Denis concentrates on the Claggert figure Sergeant Galoup–a model of neocolonialist dislocation
[ read more... ]

Be the first to comment on this post

..